discover music through the grapevine.

‘Crew Love’ is an absolutely unbelievable exercise in mind-blowing, spontaneous dynamic shifts, and atmospheric left-of-field R&B. While this is technically a Drake song, it’s obvious who dominates it, The Weeknd, AKA, Abel Tesfaye. Crushing barrages of bass, luscious synth textures beneath Tesfaye’s silk falsetto, all qualities which fit comfortably into the Weeknd’s catalog. Drake does his best to keep up, and in the past he’s proven he can, such as on the Drake dominated track, ‘The Zone’ from The Weeknd’s mixtape, ‘Thursday’, but this time he just comes across as average. The track is very top-heavy in terms of quality , with the first half dominated by Tesfaye’s hypnotic R&B swagger, and the second half and Drake’s verse just getting by in comparison. Check it out…

This album was released a few weeks ago, and of course I was a little slow to getting it up here, my mistake. Girls is the brainchild of Christopher Ownes, an artist whose knack for attractive melodies and lo-fi California surf pop is irresistible. On ‘Father, Son and Holy Ghost’, they get a little more complex then on their debut album, ‘Album’. Dynamic fluctuations in texture and volume keep you hooked from beginning ’til end, swinging between shaking emotional sparse acoustic whispers to operatic, arena sized celebrations.

I love when songs have a trip hop feel to them. That really relaxed melody over a hip hop beat with a little swing and swagger, something you can relax with, but nod your head to at the same time. This style was heavily pioneered by the likes of artists such as Zero 7 or Portishead. This cover of ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis has that feel to it. Really smooth beat absolutely littered with easily recognizable samples that blend together into a laid back, trippy collage of unbelievable music.